Mistletoe
by Amaya Zorifuki
Summary: It all started with a piece of mistletoe on the holiday season. NejiTen with hints of NaruHina, ShikaIno, and SasuSaku.


This was written on a completely random idea for the holidays. And I have WAY too much Christmas spirit so this should squeeze some of it out. This is also my first attempt at romance or any fic with pairings, so please don't hate me if it stinks. I happen to like Neji/Ten so please don't hold it against me if you don't like this pairing.

Disclaimer: I don't own anything about Naruto or the characters involved, I just own this concept.

Mistletoe

"Tenten, what is that?"

It was Christmas time in Konoha, making the people merrier and the stores bring out their holiday sales. And although there was no sign of snow yet, the spirit was alive and well. And all around the village, everyone had decided to put up some decoration in honor of the holidays, even Tsunade.

Of course, not everyone knew what every piece of holiday décor meant. Such was the case as Neji Hyuga saw watched Tenten put up some things for her apartment. She paused as her teammate regarded the plant in her hand.

"What is that?" he repeated.

Tenten glanced at him, she knew he was in need of more 'out' time, but to not to this extent.

"Mistletoe. You haven't heard of it Neji?" She asked him with a mischievous grin, "It's fairly common you know."

"I know what it is, Tenten." He replied in annoyance, "But what are you doing with it?"

Tenten smiled at her holiday-deprived friend and teammate. He may have been a genius, but he was a bit dim with things that involved anything with cheer. Although he had been working on it lately.

"I'm putting it up for the holidays. It's a special thing that has to do with Christmas. You have to hang it high or else it won't work."

"Right," Neji said slowly, still a little leery of the plant now hanging above the frame for her front door, "Hinata-sama asked me to pick you up so you can go Christmas shopping with her."

Tenten looked back at him from the box of festive, cheery decorations she was rummaging through.

"Is that the only reason you came to see me today?" She asked,

"Tenten, this was several days ago, you were there when she asked me to take you." Neji said dryly as he leaned against the doorframe, "You do remember that right?"

Her, along with the kunoichi of the 'rookie nine' had all agreed to meet each other to discuss holiday plans and talk about a Christmas party. The girls planned to go get things for the party and for their gifts.

Tenten huffed "No, I didn't forget. I just got caught up in the decorating."

She ran over to the closet and retrieved her winter jacket, as she did, Neji glanced back at the mistletoe from his position under it. He turned to her as she headed back to the front door. (You know what's coming. XD)

"So what is the point of Mistletoe anyway?" He asked her, pointing above his head where it hung.

Tenten looked up at the plant, looked back at Neji and smiled. Before the Hyuga could react, she leaned up to him and kissed him on the lips. She pulled back, smiled at his stunned face, turned around and went heading for the restaurant.

Neji stood rooted to the spot where Tenten kissed him, unsure of what had happened and waited for the actual kiss to register in his brain. Tenten already began walking ahead of him.

"Come on Neji, we're seeing the others." She called back. "You do remember that, right?" she added in a playful tone.

Neji shook the experience back and proceeded to follow his teammate. They did have other ninja to meet.

**Later**

They had met the others by the Ichiraku ramen stand. Naruto was inhaling ramen like air while Hinata sat next to him, blushing up a storm. Sasuke sat with Sakura and Ino on either side of him, the rest of the boys were elsewhere, probably either doing their own shopping, or just being lazy.

"There they are." Ino pointed out, "It's about time."

The two shinobi rolled their eyes at the loud blonde and sat down, just in time for the louder blonde looked up from his ramen.

"So what took you?"

There was a pause as Neji tried to avoid mentioning the romantic incident. "Tenten got caught up in her decorating." Neji said, turning a bit pink.

Luckily for him, the cold masked his blush fairly well, seeing as nobody seemed to even notice it.

"Anyway, we were going to go get some things for the Christmas party." Sakura said to them, "We were also going Christmas shopping, so we should head out soon."

After a few minutes of eating some warm ramen, they all stood up and prepared to head out. Neji tuned to Tenten, to ask her something, but the memory of the mistletoe incident stopped him. His blush grew at the thought.

The kunoichi had headed to the shopping center for their shopping; they had been in need of things for the holidays.

"Merry Christmas!" Tenten said to a random passerby, before she turned back to the shelf of snacks.

"Wow Tenten, you sure do have a lot of holiday cheer." Sakura pointed out.

Hinata nodded, "Y-you seem to really love Christmas."

"Thanks." The bun wearing kunoichi smiled, "I don't know where the holiday habit popped up, but I've always had a lot of holiday joy. So much it's leaking off on to others."

Ino grinned, "Speaking of joy, you and Neji seemed to be getting cozy. Why were you late in meeting us?"

Tenten blushed, "Nothing to major. I was just decorating, and Neji came when I was putting up some mistletoe."

That was all Ino needed to hear. "So you two found yourselves underneath it, eh? Did you follow tradition?"

The other two glanced at her as Ino asked what happened, they all grinned when she nodded, a blush on her face.

"Ooh, it's about time." Sakura said, "How was it?"

"Well, it was nice and…wait, what do you mean 'it's about time?'"

"We have been wondering when you two would get together." Ino said,

"Right, now pay up." Sakura said to Ino.

Tenten looked even more flabbergasted, "Pay up? What is THAT supposed to mean?"

They smiled and ignored her, "You owe me five hundred yen, Ino-pig." (That's about five bucks, I think. Correct me if I'm wrong) Tenten watched at Ino handed Sakura the money.

"I though for sure they would kiss after new years." She mumbled

"Were you two betting on me?" Tenten asked.

She turned to Hinata, who threw her hands up in a way that told the weapons mistress that it was all Sakura and Ino. So she turned her gaze to the two of them, who regarded her with nervous pleasure.

"Just betting to see if you two would get together before new years." Sakura said, "Ino said you wouldn't till then."

Tenten moaned, "You told me all you were doing was betting on Hinata and Naruto."

"W-w-what?" Hinata started to stutter.

"It's only the most obvious thing in Konoha." Ino told the Hyuga, "More so than Sasuke-kun and Sakura together."

"Anyway," Sakura said, hoping to change the subject, "How are you on getting things for the Christmas gifts?"

"Pretty good," Ino said, "Only I have no idea what to get for you, billboard-brow."

Sakura frowned and turned to Hinata, "So how about you?"

"I'm fine." The shy girl said, her stutter evaporating, "But getting things for those on other teams is hard."

"You're telling me." Tenten sighed, "I have no idea what kind of stuff Shino would like."

Ino laughed, "It's fine if you think hard enough."

"What did you get him?"

"Some snail biscuits."

There was an awkward pause as Ino looked triumphant with her choice in gifts. Whether or not snails were insects was to be disputed anyways.

"Well, I have a good idea on gifts overall." Tenten said eventually.

"And what are you planning an getting Neji?" Ino said, determined to get them together and not wanting to drop the subject.

Sakura leaned forward, also wanting to play Cupid. Hinata, who didn't want to meddle but wanted them to get together, pretended not to hear as Tenten blinked.

"I already got him something." She assured them, "And no I'm not going to tell you what it is. You'll have to wait for Christmas."

The girls eventually managed to finish their shopping with zeal. The party was going to be held on Christmas Eve, which was in a few days. So they all went home to wrap their gifts

When Tenten arrived back home, she glanced back up at the mistletoe where she kissed Neji. She laughed to herself and went to wrap her gifts.

And over by the Hyuga complex, Neji was recalling the incident. It was quick and sudden, but it also, somehow felt nice.

At a completely different house, some people were talking amongst themselves. Two meddling romance aficionados who had nothing better to do.

"So how are we going to pull this off?" Sakura asked, "They did kiss but that was just because of Mistletoe."

"We need to get them lip-locking on their own." Ino piped up, "And I think I know a way. But we'll need help from the guys. And after that, we'll meddle in Hinata's romantic life." She cheered

"Or we could find a way to deal with that at the party too." Sakura said, "It'll take a Christmas miracle to pull this off."

"Right, so here's my idea."

**Because I can't think of anything else, I'll cut to the party.**

On Christmas Eve, things were going great. The party had barely managed to go off without a hitch. There was STILL no snow, but they had managed to round up all the snacks and decorations. Ino had been good enough to lend her house for the party. Despite the fact that some traditions made absolutely no sense to anyone.

"This thing is perfect!" Ino cheered, "If only it would snow."

"Ino, why is there a thing of pickles here?" Kiba found himself asking her.

"My mom insisted on it." Ino told him, "Something to do with two boys shoved in a pickle barrel and Santa getting them out. I don't get it either."

Pickles aside, things were pleasant if not festive. Hinata had actually started to work up some courage to give her gift to Naruto.

"Um, N-Naruto-kun?" She asked,

"Huh? Hey Hinata! You need something?" The loud blonde shinobi said.

"Oh, um, no."

Despite her efforts and affection, poor Hinata could not quite break the habit of shrinking at the sound of Naruto's voice, and she was so close.

"Man, she was so close." Ino moaned, she made hand signs for the mind transfer jutsu, but was stopped by a hand on hers.

"For the millionth time Ino." Shikamaru told her, "No using that jutsu to meddle in romance. If you are going to meddle, use something less obvious and less troublesome."

Ino frowned, "Fine! By the way, here's your gift. She handed him a brightly wrapped parcel before going to do her thing.

Raising an eyebrow, he shook it, it sounded like a book. Sakura noticed the exchange and went to ask Ino,

"What did you give him?"

"Who? Shikamaru? Just a book called 'trivia games for dummies'."

Sakura moaned, "Tell me Ino-pig, was there any gift from you that's not a joke?"

"Probably not." Came the response, "Anyway, I was about to get Hinata to give her thing to Naruto, we can work on the other project after that."

"Right."

Sakura moved over to her teammate, who was refilling his cup of eggnog. She was determined to at least get those two having some holiday cheer together. Than again she would like the same thing with Sasuke. If this worked she would never doubt the power of 'Christmas miracles' again.

"Hey Naruto." She called to him, "Have you gotten your gift from Hinata yet?"

"Eh? Hinata got me something?" Naruto asked, clueless.

Without having to even answer, Sakura gripped Naruto by the shoulders, turned him in the proper direction of the Hyuga heiress, and pushed him towards her.

Speaking of Hinata, Ino was trying to talk some pluck into her. She was just telling her to at least shove the gift in his face and not say anything, when Hinata's long time crush bumped into them.

"OW! Naruto you idiot!" Ino shrieked before she realized who it was, "Oh, I mean, See you later Hinata." And with that she ran off.

They stood there in silence for a moment, before Hinata finally came to her senses and held out the neatly wrapped gift in front of Naruto's face.

"I-I got you something for Christmas N-Naruto-kun." She stuttered.

"Oh, for me?" Naruto took the gift and stood for a second, "Should I open it now, or what?"

"I-I d-d-don't m-mind."

Naruto ripped the paper apart and held it up, and smiled as he realized what it was. It was a hand-knit orange sweater with matching gloves. (I had three headaches trying to think up what she'd give him)

"Hey! Thanks Hinata. Did you make these?" She nodded, "I got you something too, but it's kind of useless right now."

"Oh, thank you." she said, not really caring if it was useless.

"Go ahead," Naruto said, "I opened mine, it's only fair, right?"

She gently pulled apart the wrapping paper and looked at what he gave her, it was a hummingbird feeder.

"I figured when spring comes you can put it up and watch the hummingbirds." Naruto smiled, "You have wait for spring, but I thought you might like hummingbirds."

Hinata blushed about eight different shades of red and asked Naruto to join her at the fire. The two of them moved to warm up. Nearby Neji gave Naruto a hard look, to which Tenten smiled at him.

"Relax, Neji. He won't do anything to her. And she's head over heels for him."

"Right." Neji mumbled, hoping that they wouldn't get near any mistletoe.

At the thought of the national holiday plant, he blushed and sipped some punch.

"Hey Hyuga." He heard Shikamaru walking towards him just as the girls called Tenten over to ask her something.

"From what I heard, Tenten taught you the meaning of mistletoe the other day. Was it enjoyable?"

Luckily for him and his dignity, the others had begun to gather around for something else they planned.

"Time for caroling." Ino cheered,

"You expect us to go outside and sing in this cold?" Shikamaru asked incredulously,

"No stupid." Ino yelled, "We came up with it the other day, caroling by phone."

The others sweat-dropped as she pulled out a phone book and began to flip through it.

"So are you just planning on calling random numbers, or looking for numbers of those we know?" Chouji asked his teammate.

"I wouldn't need the phone book if I was going for random numbers."

"You know she has a point." Lee said to the others.

As Ino began to dial, those who wanted to sing carols stood by the phone and waited. Those who felt that caroling was not their thing sat by the tree or the fire.

Sakura glanced over by the fire and noticed Sasuke sitting there. She excused herself from singing 'Silent night' and walked over to him. She sat next to him in silence and stared into the flame.

She contemplated saying something to him, but she couldn't think of anything to say. Sighing to herself, she pulled out a small gift and sat it next to him.

"Merry Christmas." She whispered to him, and stood up and left.

Sasuke stared at her retreating back and glanced at the gift she left behind. He saw his name on it, so he picked it up and opened it. Inside the box was a small bronze kunai knife on a silver chain. He looked at it closely and saw it could be removed from the chain in a heartbeat for an emergency; there was also the Uchiha family symbol engraved on it.

Sasuke looked up at Sakura by the phone, singing 'deck the halls' with the others. He reached into his pocket and fumbled with something inside it.

"Okay guys, it's almost time to head out." Ino called, "I hope you have a merry Christmas."

"Right Ino," Shikamaru said to her, "You just want us out of your house."

"Hmm, yeah pretty much." Ino said to him. "My dad said to stop by ten anyway."

"Whatever Ino," The lazy genius shrugged and handed her a package, "Merry Christmas, thanks for the book."

Ino glanced at the package and ripped it open, and found a copy of a book entitled 'The big book of becoming calm.' She looked up, furious. Shikamaru was already several blocks away.

Ino grumbled and opened the book, she was surprised to see a pair of earrings slip out of it. They were pewter and looked like roses. She smiled at her teammates form, now a speck in the distance, and slipped them into her pocket.

Everyone else, who laughed immensely at the scene, said their farewells and wished each other happy holidays.

"Come on Hinata-chan, I'll walk you home." Naruto said to Hinata, who blushed. Neji gave him another look.

"I'll come with you." Tenten said to the three of them, "My apartment is on the way there."

"Bye you guys." Sakura said to them as she headed home on her own.

Sasuke stared after her, mumbled a goodbye and followed after her. Nobody noticed this, but they all headed back to their own houses.

"Nice Christmas party, a good Christmas Eve." Sakura said to herself.

When she came to her house, she slid her house key in the lock as quietly as she could, her parents were probably asleep and she didn't want to wake them. She glanced down and saw something.

She picked up a small gift wrapped in red paper. She opened it and saw a bracelet with silver and gold in it. She looked up and smiled at the starless, cloudy sky.

"Thank you."

Nearby, Sasuke stood out of view from Sakura and watched her as slipped on the bracelet and clasped it. He smiled to himself and turned home.

Back with the two Hyuga, Naruto and Tenten, they had met with an awkward silence. It was a little unbecoming of Christmas time, so when they came to the intersection where Tenten turned, she felt a bit relieved.

"I'll see you later." She said, "I turn here. Merry Christmas."

There was a pause, when Neji spoke up, "I'll walk you the rest of the way. Naruto, can you walk Hinata home for me?"

"Huh? Oh, sure. See you guys later. Merry Christmas" Naruto assured him.

"Um, see you later Neji-nii-san." Hinata said to her cousin, recognizing the Christmas gift he was giving her with letting Naruto walk her home.

Tenten looked over at the two genin, and then back at Neji. He had gotten closer and more protective of Hinata recently. It was interesting seeing him do something like this.

"That was a nice present you gave her, Neji." She told him, "I guess Christmas really does make light hearts."

They continued walking in a moderate silence; it was awkward after all that had happened in the past few days. Eventually they came to Tenten's apartment, she turned to him.

"Well, this is my stop." She said, "I had a good time today, it was fun hanging out with everyone."

"Yeah," Neji responded.

They stood there for a moment, before Tenten came to her senses and reached into her pocket.

"Oh, I almost forgot, here." She handed him a present, "It took a while but I think it was a good find. Shopping for you is hard!" (She says this because it took me AGES to think of what she gave him)

He took the gift and unwrapped it, and was surprised to find what was inside it. It was a glass ball, with a pattern of flying birds inside it. He smiled at it and carefully placed it back in its box.

"Thank you." He told her, "I would give you my gift, just as soon as some busybodies get lost." He raised his voice towards a figure in the bushes,

Ino (who was wearing her new earrings XD) squeaked from her hiding place and shuffled away, whispering something in a walkie-talkie as she left the two.

"Abort the plan, abort the plan." She muttered through gritted teeth.

As soon as she left, Neji handed Tenten a present, she began unwrapping it as Neji stood waiting for her thoughts.

"Neji, it's beautiful, thank you."

He had given her a pearl handled katana, beautifully crafted with silver etched in the handle and a matching sheath.

"Merry Christmas, Tenten."

And with that, he decided to do something he had felt like doing since he bought the katana for her. He leaned forwards and kissed her, pressing his lips to hers in a swift yet unexpected moment. It was longer and deeper than the first one, and it was somehow, more magical. She drew herself closer and he wrapped his arms around her. After a moment of pure bliss, they finally broke apart.

Tenten was about to open her mouth and speak, when she felt something cold on her face, she looked up and saw it begin to snow. The two of them stood in the falling snow for a while in silence, as it became a white Christmas.

"Um, Neji?" The Hyuga prodigy turned to Tenten, "It's getting kind of cold, would you like to come inside?"

"That depends," He said as he held her, a smile playing on his lips "Do you still have that mistletoe?"

Merry Christmas!

A/N: That was my first attempt at anything close to romance, and I would very much like some input at to how I did, or some constructive criticism if you have any. But Neji/Ten is one of my favorite pairings, and there were hints at some other pairings I like.

Millie (my sister): You've been listening to that one non-stop Christmas carol radio station again haven't you? Are those more Christmas stories in your computer?

Me: Maybe. Besides, this helps me get the holiday stress and keep my balance on reality in check.

Millie: Says the teenager who still believes in Santa Clause.

Me: I WILL ALWAYS BE A CHILD AT HEART! YOU CAN'T STOP ME WITH MY CHRISTMAS SPIRIT! WHEEEEEEEEEEEEEE! MERRY CHRISTMAS!


End file.
